Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Talley leads
Lions
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Lions survive and advance in playoff s
Jimmy Talley
crowned Sky-Em
champion
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Going into the Sky-Em
District Championship cross
country race, Cottage Grove’s
Jimmy Talley had a plan. Th e
idea was to hang back, run
from second place and at-
tempt to win the race in the
fi nal mile. But once the start-
ing gun sounded, his plan was
promptly thrown out.
“We kind of started out way
slower than I thought we were
going to so I decided, I don’t
know, I’ll try leading for once,”
said Talley who charged ahead
to fi rst place. “I didn’t like it.”
But for Talley, his new plan
worked out just fi ne as he
raced his way to a wire-to-
wire fi rst place fi nish to be
crowned Sky-Em champion
in a time of 16:04 Th ursday
aft ernoon at Lane Communi-
ty College. It is the fi rst time
a Cottage Grove runner has
won the individual league ti-
tle since Ken Scoggin won in
2005.
“It’s pretty cool. In track this
year (won districts), but this
is defi nitely the fi rst time for
cross country so that’s a pretty
cool experience. I’m really ex-
cited to go to state, too,” said
Talley.
Th roughout the race Talley
had a lead of a couple seconds
and was running alone up
front but oft en looked over his
shoulder to see where the sec-
ond place runner was. Second
place, fi lled by a cast of Marist
runners, never quite lost con-
tact and entering the fi nal
300 meters – run on the LCC
track – it was as close as fi rst
and second had been since the
start of the race.
“I’m just not used to leading
so I thought, I was nervous
he was going to come up be-
hind me,” said Talley. “I have
a pretty decent kick when it
comes to like other runners
so I wasn’t too worried about
it but I was still, I didn’t know
exactly who was behind me.”
Talley had enough left in
the tank as he cruised on
the blue track to secure fi rst.
Marist’s Evan Villano fi nished
two seconds behind Talley.
With the top time in the 4A,
Talley is looking to keep it that
way at the state meet at LCC
on November 3.
“I’m going to try and get
what I’m ranked as right now.
But I’m actually going to try
to do what I was going to do
today,” said Talley. “I think it
will be a little easier because
that one is defi nitely going to
go out fast. Th at’s going to go
way faster because it’s state.
Everyone has that mentality
that they’re going to PR, it’s
competitive.”
Konrad Raum was the next
Cottage Grove fi nisher in 12th
place with a time of 16:58.
Also scoring for the Lions was
Paesen Timm (18:46, 33rd
place), Justin Francis (19:50,
39th place) and Jaden Th uesen
(19:58, 40th place). Cottage
Grove fi nished fi ft h of the six
teams in the league with 125
points. Marist took fi rst with
23 points and the team had six
runners place in the top 10.
Siuslaw took second.
On the girls side, it was a
heartbreaking race for Cot-
tage Grove sophomore An-
nah Nyburg. With the top fi ve
runners advancing to state,
Nyburg fi nished sixth, one
second behind Elmira’s Kait-
lin Cook in fi ft h place. Th is
means that despite having the
eighth fastest time in all of 4A,
Cottage Grove’s Dylan Graves celebrates after running in for a fi rst half touchdown at Newport last Friday.
Cottage Grove football
survives scoreless second half
to move on to fi rst round of
the state playoff s
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Th e recipe for winning a play-in
football game does not generally include
playing on the road against a higher
ranked opponent, heavy fog, heavier rain,
injuries to the team’s all-state players, a
scoreless second half and committing 14
penalties for 135 yards.
Generally.
But on the road at Newport on Friday
night, Cottage Grove was able to weather
the storm – both literally and fi guratively
– to come away with a 32-24 victory that
sends the team to the fi rst round of the
state playoff s.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words – to
be honest with you – about the whole
thing,” said head coach Gary Roberts
aft er the victory. “(Coordinator Marty
Johnson) and I were talking to each
other and we’re…both saying, ‘Hey, we’ve
never been a part of anything like this.’
And at the same time, thinking, how can
we handle any more adversity than we
have?”
In the fi rst half, Cottage Grove’s fi rst
bump in the road was when quarterback
Dylan Graves was injured while in at
safety while on defense. Coming up with
a tackle, he took a helmet to the leg that
kept him down aft er the play. Playing
with a slight limp throughout the rest
of the game, Graves was able to rely on
throwing the ball while still being able to
scramble for extra yards. Graves fi nished
the day completing 23 of 30 passes for
240 yards, three touchdowns and an
interception while rushing for 76 yards
and a touchdown.
But guiding the off ense – despite also
suff ering a leg injury later in the game –
was Erick Giff en. Giff en was everywhere
on off ense including at quarterback
where he took direct snaps throughout
the game.
Th e perfect encapsulation of Giff en’s
mark on the game was in a drive in the
second quarter where he took over for
the team. Backed up on their own one-
yard line – thanks to the Cottage Grove
defense stopping the Cubs on fourth and
goal – Giff en took the snap and ran for
59 yards. A play later he found Jaden
Doolittle for a 34-yard pass and capped
the drive with a touchdown reception
from Graves and, for good measure, a
successful point aft er attempt.
“I just have to shoutout to me and
Dylan’s line because that protection on all
the plays where I was able to break them
loose, I was untouched. So kudos to my
line, said Giff en. He fi nished the day with
165 rushing yards, 125 receiving yards,
43 passing yards and three touchdowns.
“Erick’s a great football player. He’s
good at times ad-libbing. Sometimes it
hurts him, sometimes it helps him but
he’s a good football player and I’m really
proud of the way he came up big for us,”
said Roberts. “We have to have big plays
from Dylan, we have to have big plays
from Erick for us to be successful and we
got those tonight.”
Jaden Doolittle also scored in the fi rst
half for Cottage Grove on a 22-yard
reception. Doolittle fi nished the game
with 84 yards receiving on fi ve catches.
Jacob Dunn added 62 yards on fi ve
catches.
Aft er throwing an interception on the
fi rst play of the game, Newport favored
the run game. Cottage Grove came away
with four interceptions on the day -- one
a piece from Zumwalt, Giff en, Doolittle
and Trace Nelson.
With Cottage Grove leading 32-8 at
the half, it was Newport starting the
FOOTBALL
see B4
CG Volleyball heads to quarterfi nals
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove’s Reilly Kelty gets a kill against Banks on Saturday
night at home.
Athlete of
the Week
It has been a season of check-
ing things off their list and on
Saturday night the Cottage
Grove volleyball checked off
another important box. Th is
one was to qualify for next
weekend’s state quarterfi nals
at Forest Grove and by taking
down Banks in straight sets
(25-17, 25-15, 25-20) at home,
they did exactly that.
“We’re going back. Th is was
on our list but I think since
we’ve been there before – last
year – we have higher expec-
tations of going in and have the
goal of taking the tournament,”
said Cottage Grove head coach
Kendra Anderson. “Th at’s what
they’re reaching for.”
Aft er an 11-day break since
Th is week's athletes of the
week are the players of North
Douglas' volleyball team
for earning a spot at the
quarterfi nals for the fi ft h
season in a row.
See B4 for more on the game.
their last game, the third ranked
Lions started off slow and the
14th ranked Braves seized an
early fi ve-point advantage. Af-
ter a timeout, Cottage Grove
regrouped and the fi rst point
back was a Reilly Kelty kill that
showed the team that they were
going to be just fi ne. Kelty led
the team in kills with 12 on the
day in addition to seven digs
and four aces.
In the second set, the Lions
lacked some of their normal in-
tensity but their depth helped
guide them to the victory. Cassi-
dy Herbert fi nished the day with
11 kills, 10 digs and four aces;
Lauren Witty had 37 assists and
six kills; Matty Ladd recorded
six kills and three blocks; Sam
May had 12 digs.
“Our energy wasn’t like when
we won league necessarily. It
was just like, another thing on
the list to do,” said Herbert. “I
feel like we just made it – okay,
we’re going to go out and play
this game. It’s a check.”
It was more of the same in the
third set but this time the Lions
trailed 19-13 when they simply
decided to fl ip the switch.
“Th ey just need to turn it
around they made the deci-
sion. We called a timeout, they
made the decision,” said Ander-
son. “Nope, we’re not going to
a fourth set, we’re changing it
now. Th ey went right back out
and they did it.”
Th e Lions were able to fi nish
the set on a 12-2 run to secure
their place among the top teams
in 4A. It is the second season in
a row for the Lions to be play-
ing at Forest Grove. Last season
they were an 11-seed that lost in
VOLLEYBALL see B3
The North
Douglas girls
celebrate on
the court.
PHOTO ZACH SILVA
CROSS COUNTRY see B4